Electro-Motive, as such, is covered on its own page,
where there is a short history of the corporation and the GM division it later became.

Electro-Motive Corporation was an early builder of gas-electric railcars, later
adding locomotives. General Motors Corporation got the diesel bug
in 1929 and bought Winton Engine Co., which made most of EMC's engines,
the following year. Later that year (1930), GM also bought out EMC, changing
it's name to Electro-Motive Division.

[Somehow, this is patently wrong! In my reprint of the 1941Locomotive Cyclopedia, the name is quite clearly and definitely stillElectro-Motive Corporation, "a Division of General Motors"!]

EMC's early, and very interesting, boxcabs are also rather heavily covered on my various
ALCo-GE-IR boxcab pages, q.v., and especially on my
Other Boxcabs page.

The story of B&O #50 (later Alton, then GM&O), the world's first production main-line
passenger diesel, and its two sisters, EMC demo units #511 and #512, is quite
fascinating (to me, at any rate) and is covered on its own
Survivors page.

EMD also built some boxcabs for the SF in 1935 and two 1,000hp E6 boxcabs
(yes, Virginia, E6 boxcabs!) - see my Other Boxcabs
page.

As far as I can tell, only one EMC/EMD boxcab survived; the B&O #50 at the National
Museum of Transport in St. Louis.

Other EMC/EMD Boxcabs

An early EMD boxcab designed for freight operation was their Model 60; this boxcab is
very close in shape and appearance to the ALCos. The locomotive is a 400hp
boxcab ca. 1930-31 and was equipped with a Winton 148 gasoline engine.
Two units, #463 and #464, went to the Lehigh Valley in 1930 and a third to the
Steelton & Highspire Railroad {that's the steel mill immediately south of Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania - SBIII} in 1931. This info. supplied by my Web ami à Québec.

Although this image of #463 was cropped, the chassis is symmetrical; however, the
body is shown as symmetrical on the photo, with two doors on this side and "F" and
the builder's plate to the right and the radiator set slightly to the rear (left) with the
bell forward, yet a drawing and a photo of #464 shows only one door at the
engineer's end on the side. Also the drawing and #464 photo show the
radiators having a diagonal collector pipe on the right side (with "F" and the builder's
plate at the front and the radiator toward the front with the bell behind it). Eh?
These appealing little boxcabs were built by Bethlehem Steel Company and measure
40' 2¼" between coupler pulling faces, 20' 10" between truck centers, and
8' 10" from truck centers to pulling faces, are 15' 0½" high overall and 10' 2" wide,
and ride on 7' 6" w.b. trucks with 38" diameter wheels.

According to Louis A. Marre, in "Diesel locomotives: The First 50 Years"
(see Boxcabs Bibliography), 1995, page 363, EMD built
the mechanism and Bethlehem built the carbody (in 1930) and the S&H unit was
delivered with a Winton 400-hp diesel but soon re-engined with a gasoline engine.
Marre includes a photograph of one of the LV units, but it is numbered 76
(Class BB-2) and the side is asymmetrical, with only an engineer's door to the right.

EMC built two other 1,800-hp passenger boxcabs in 1935, their demonstrators #511
and #512 were virtually identical to #50 but were scrapped in 1938*. Then they built
nine boxy-cab units for SF and CB&Q in 1935-36 (see Pinkepank/Marre).

* - When #511 and #512 were scrapped, their trucks were used for NW4 builder's
numbers 823 and 834, MP #4102 and #4103, that same year.

[Thanks to Mark Laundry for this information.]

Marre and others show them on test (see the dynamometer car behind #511) - I hope
to get permission to show that photo here.

There was also a similar loco-cum-car (with early shovelnose) for the Rock Island,
600-hp mail-baggage rail motor car #2027:

(Image from Train Shed Cyclopedia #20)

How odd! A pair of similar units was built (also with early semi-shovelnoses)
for the Seaboard Air Line and were numbered 2026 and 2027!

St. Louis Car Co. and EMC also teamed up to build one or more 800HP straight boxcab
locos for the Rock Island:

(Images from Train Shed Cyclopedia #20)

The road numbers appear to be #9014 and #9612, respectively; are these
different units or just a renumbering?

I seem to have overlooked the appearance in Train Shed Cyclopedia #20 of AT&SF
#1a and #1b:

(Image from Train Shed Cyclopedia #20)

EMC built these boxcabs for the SF in 1935; they originally had the beetle brows
(semi-streamlined radiator housings) over the cabs,as pictured above, and were later
rebuilt in 1938 from B-B to rather-weird 1-A-A - 1-A-A locos, having a leading idler
wheelset added to the front end of each front truck. #1A was renumbered to
#1 and #1B to #10. To further confuse things, both units were then modified
with semi-turret cabs and by fitting that odd extra axle to the rear trucks, as
well, and then, in a fiendish move clearly intended to totally demoralize railfans,
#1B-cum-#10 was redesignated a booster unit and renumbered to 2nd #1A!
As if THAT weren't bad enough, in 1948 #1B-cum-#10-cum-#1A was again rebuilt,
with a mild shovelnose and Blomberg trucks, and renumbered to #2611!
Finally, in 1953, both units were rebuilt into E8Bs! All this is
from Marre (1995) and he allows that the most significant result of all this
"was the Accounting Department record"; I couldn't agree more.!

However, Pinkepank/Marre disgree a bit with what follows and I think you'll agree that
what follows is far more comprehensive and probably far more accurate!

There is a fantastic history and photo gallery of "The Twins", and a superb
HO model of one of them, by Werner Schneider, at
ATSF_Class_1.

I now present here the story of the EMC/EMD AT&SF boxcabs from Werner
Schneider's history and illustrations (with his kind permission).

[I have edited and amended this to suit my purposes;
for those who wish the unexpurgated version,
I have included links to Werner's pages.]

The Class 1 locomotives were Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé's first mainline diesels.
Introduced in 1935 (delivered 30 Aug 1935), they underwent various modifications
until they were scrapped in 1953.

Michael W. Blaszak's
ATSF History: Santa Fe: A Chronology gives a brief but succinct introduction
to ATSF's history (scroll down to the year 1935 and explore the story of the Class 1
engines).

Originally introduced as Class 1 and 1A*, they were rebuilt and renamed a number of
times. Gregg Fuhriman's
ATSF: All-Time Diesel Roster gives you all the details; scroll down to the
General Motors (EMC, EMD, GMDD) tabulation and watch for "boxcab"**.
Then scroll to the bottom and check the "Santa Fe rebuilds" table. No other prototype
went through as many modifications in such a short period of time as the Class 1.

* - we seem to have a discrepancy
over whether the twins started life as #1 and #1A or as #1A and #1B - oog!

** - It is interesting to see that the
SF leased a third unit, #1C, from EMC that year!

Wonder what unit that was?

Family tree of the Class 1

First introduction of The Twins (built by EMC and St. Louis Car Company)

Built in 1935 by EMC (Electro-Motive Corporation, a subsidiary of General Motors), La
Grange, Illinois, and St. Louis Car Company, St. Louis, Missouri, generally known and
frequently referred to as “The Quality Shops”. The company built all types of
Rail Motor Cars, Streamlined Articulated Trains, and Motor Locomotives. Among
those were the diesel electric locomotive twins for the Super Chief heavy consist.
Some interesting details can be found in the Specification section (below).

The twins were initially named Diesel Electric Locomotive Class 1, numbers 1 and 1A
{or possibly 1A and 1B}. Through their life cycle they changed those numbers
a couple of times.

These delivery photographs, taken before or on August 30, 1935, show the 2 units in their initial colors: coach green, scarlet, cobalt blue and saratoga blue. As unusual as the new diesels was the color scheme. The type B road trucks were masked by individual skirting. The shrouds were almost immediately removed when the units went into service.

A drawing of the twin units gives certain details:

Still test-running the 2 units months after delivery. A serious problem was
overheating of the trailing unit. A picture from April, 1936, showing the
heavyweight consist Super Chief the brand new twins were intended for.

The picture below, taken in Spring 1937, depicts the twins after one of the various
modifications showing the trailing unit (#1A) as a booster with the cabs eliminated
(cab windows blanked), the side windows covered and the roof rebuilt. The lead unit
got an additional air horn, roof-mounted bells, a second head light and extended
exhaust stacks.

The most visible rebuild happened in 1938 at AT&SF's Topeka shops when the two
units (#1 remained #1 and #1A became #10) got their very unique design. The only
cab left per unit was raised in an (for that time) unusual way, giving the locomotive
that distinctive look {the semi-turret cab}.

The lead truck was exchanged for a drop-equalizer 1B, 3-axle, roller-bearing truck
with the first axle being an idler. The rear truck remained in the original
configuration but got roller-bearings as well, instead of solid-bearings.

A few years later (early 1940) the trailing truck was replaced in the same manner.

This is unit #1A around 1940, after it had served as trailing unit with #1, was modified to become a booster unit and again rebuilt to serve as a sister unit to #1. Here with the number 10 which served as prototype for the Model. See the next picture for a further stage.

Between her service as #10 and the final appearance as #2611 the above unit went through another rebuild at the Topeka shops in early 1941. Since there are no pictures available the drawing of the Booster unit has to suffice.
Unit #1 as she looked in March 1947. The rear truck was also replaced with a 3-axle truck similar to the front truck. Despite the leading axle being an idler, the classification of the wheel arrangement was 1B-1B (better maybe B1-B1).
This unit remained in this configuration until it was finally scrap{p}ed in 1953.

#1 and the booster unit (ex #10, ex #1A) were supposed to be members of the
AT&SF 2610 class but only the latter got the honor to be rebuilt into #2611 in 1948.
The new configuration is shown in the pictures below. #2611 served in branch
line service as a transfer switcher and local freight unit on EMD-FT-type freight trucks
(B-B arrangement). It was the first high-horsepower road switcher on the
Santa Fe Railroad.

(As she looked around 1948)

Some other pictures of the same unit but with further modifications, below in 1951:

One of the very last pictures of #2611 with even further modifications at EMD in 1953 - prior to dismantling.

Specifications {verbatim from Werner Schneider}:

Since the twin units #1 and #1A are considered to be one locomotive, most of the
detailed specifications in drawings and articles are given for the two units together.
Here, all the information is shown per unit:

Main engines: 2 diesel engines (EMC-Winton) @ 900 hp,

total per unit: 1800 hp;

12 cyls., bore 8”, stroke 10”;

code: 201-A (this engine was also available as

8 cyls. w/600 hp and 16 cyls. w/1200 hp).

Auxiliary engine: 1 diesel engine w/90 hp;

6 cyls., bore 5.25”, stroke 7”.

Main generator: 1 Type: GT-535-B2, GE, 600 V, 750kW.

Aux. generator: 1 Type: GT-1127-K1, GE, 76 V, 10 kW.

Traction motors: 4 Type: GE-716-C2, gear ratio 2.5 to 1.

Wheels: Rolled steel, diameter 36”

Maximum speed: 98 Mph

On 12 Aug 2003, I received eBay Item #2184146168 which I'd won, a tearsheet from
a 1938 British encyclop(e)(æ)dia with the beginning of an article on "The Fastest
Train in the World". That title belonged (then) to the Santa Fé's
Super Chief, running 202.4 miles from La Junta to Dodge City in145
minutes for an average speed of over 83&frac12; mph. The record
had been held by Germany's Flying Cologner running 157 miles
between Berlin and Hanover at an average 82&frac12. This AT&SF run
reduced the coast-to-coast time to under forty hours. That Super Chief
was drawn by (no fair - you guessed) none other than the AT&SF Twins and there is a
photo of the train, apparently on its maiden run or some such, as well as one of the
Flying Cologner's competitor, the Flying Hamburger, running
between (no fair - you guessed again!) Berlin and Hamburg:
(26 Aug 03)

E6
boxcabs (yes, Virginia, 1,000hp E6 boxcabs!), #751 and 752,
built by EMC in 1940 for the Rock Island for the Rocky Mountain Rocket and later
reclassified AB6. They were the second units on the train, with squared cabs,
and would cut out at Limon with the Colorado Springs section (and v-v.).
Sometime ca. 1960 they were upgraded to 2,000hp and reassigned to Chicago
push-pull service. As originally built, they were basically an E6b but with only
one prime mover and a boxcab control stand and baggage area where the second
engine would have otherwise been installed. Weeee-ird!

There are seven (7) ALCo-GE-IR (and just GE-IR or GE alone) boxcab units surviving and four (4) B-W (or B-W-style) units, one EMC unit, plus two (2) "home-grown" Anglo-Canadian and English units and two (2) electric boxcab survivors, for a total of sixteen(16) known North American and British survivors.